Conventionally, there have been techniques of assisting a user to perform a character input operation. In these techniques, when a user inputs characters, character strings are selected from a set of registered character strings and then are outputted as input candidates, so that an operation amount for character input by the user may be reduced. For example, in a related technique, a recommended item list to be inserted in a purchase list of a specific user are determined by referring to a purchase list of another user different from the specific user, and the purchase list and the recommended item list are displayed in a mixed manner as a list. In another related technique, a search is performed by using, as a search keyword, a first recommendation keyword that is a keyword candidate partially matching with an input character string yet to be decided, or a second recommendation keyword that is another candidate different from the first recommendation keyword and included in a keyword group to which the first recommendation keyword belongs.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2013-84165 and 2013-196435 disclose these related techniques.
However, according to the conventional techniques, when a user inputs characters on a predetermined screen, it is difficult to output a character string corresponding to an input character string that the user desires to input.